If you are a runner and you are looking for another activity with which to complement your workouts, it is a good idea to take a look at the Pilates classes and studies that are near your home. Remember that running is not just running , and that the specific work of strength, joint mobility and career technique is essential to improve your brands and to run safely.
Introducing one or two Pilates sessions a week can be a perfect way to complement your running training. These are some of the benefits you will get as a runner by including Pilates in your training routine .
- Improvement of your running position: and, consequently, less risk of injury while running and later appearance of fatigue. Running with a bad posture, usually bent forward , with the shoulders stuck to the ears and a little hidden head, can lead to back pain and not reach your full potential as a runner.One of the six principles of the Pilates method is the control of the center or core (in Pilates it is called Powerhouse ): the work of the internal and external musculature of our middle zone helps us to maintain a good posture, not only while doing sports, but also also in our day to day.
- Improvement of the breathing: controlling the breathing in the race is another of the basic ones when it comes to improving our brands and getting to conquer longer distances. When we run at a comfortable pace we usually use diaphragmatic breathing , which directs the air to the lower area of the lungs, making a large amount of air reach. However, when making a big effort, such as running at high speed (in a series training, for example), we use the thoracic breathing in which the air travel is shorter and enters more quickly in our body.One of the first things (and more interesting, in my opinion) that are learned in Pilates is to perform the different types of breaths : being able to direct the air to the side of our ribs or to our diaphragm when we are at rest will make this easier to perform while we run. The body control and awareness of our bodyis another of the principles of Pilates.
- Improvement of coordination: as we said before, running is not just running. During this activity our whole body works as a whole in a coordinated way, so that the movement of the upper limbs (arms) and the alignment of the scapular waist help us to run more and better.Exercises like the dead bug , the hundred or the superman in quadrupeds , which we have already explained step by step, help us to improve the coordination between the different extremities. A good coordination and a good arm movement race is essential when winning seconds.
These are just some of the benefits that Pilates practice can bring to runners . If you have not tried it yet, this may be a good time to do it.